Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to integration of data and telephony networks.
Background of the Related Art
The integration of telecommunication networks and data networks is becoming increasingly important. Telecommunication networks are used primarily for communication by telecommunication subscribers using telecommunication terminals such as telephones. Data networks are used primarily for networking computers, for example PCs with servers. Methods and arrangements whereby applications installed on computers control and monitor communication systems and communication connections are generally known as CTI solutions (CTI=Computer Telephony Integration). Both communication system ports and connections between ports can be controlled and monitored in this manner. The respective connections are temporary communication channels between two or more subscribers to one or more communication systems.
When a CTI solution is operating, data with control and status information are transmitted each time between a communication system and a CTI application (CTI application program). To this end, communication systems have special interfaces for the data exchange: CTI interfaces. The respective applications or PCs likewise have corresponding CTI interfaces for this data exchange.
For this, the CTI interfaces of the communication system and those of the application are connected with one another via a data line or a data network. Because the maximum number of CTI interfaces in a communication system is limited, a telephony server is often connected between the communication system and the applications.
The publication WO 98/51092 A1 “Computer Telephony Integration Gateway” shows a public communication network with several communication systems and a private communication network with several domains, each of which features computers with applications for controlling and/or monitoring the public communication network's resources. The arrangement shown features a “CTI gateway” as a conversion device, which changes the type of data sent for controlling and/or monitoring resources from the public communication network to the private communication network, so that these data appear as the data from one single public communication network, and conversely changes the data that are sent by the applications from the private communication network to the public communication network, as though they had been sent from a private communication network with only one application.
DE 101 59 636 B4 describes a method for controlling and/or monitoring resources and connections using the exchange of data between communication systems and at least one application, wherein the data have identifiers that differentiate the resources and the connections, and the identifiers of the resources are converted during the exchange such that they present themselves as the identifier of one single communication system with subscriber connections for the one or for each application, characterized in that each of the identifiers of the connection between resources of different communication systems comprises one local connection number (call ID) of the communication system that participates in the connection and one global connection number (call ID) and in that through the conversion the global connection number (call ID) is transmitted to the application such that it cannot be differentiated by the application from a local connection number (call ID).